Zio Luca and Zia Miriam's visit

Zio Luca and Zia Miriam are fly back to Italy today (and tonight) after a week-long stay with us. We enjoyed their time with us very much, and we hope they did, too! We wish them much happiness as their get settled in their new married life!!

(I know there was at least one typo in there!!)

Now, we will try to get into a regular school routine after 2 months of on-and-off visitors!

Catching-up on blogging

It's been a busy week, so I'm behind on blogging (again!). Here are some pictures from the previous week of school.

We didn't have school this week because we were enjoying our visit with Dany's brother, Luca, and his new wife, Miriam. Stay tuned for pictures of Zio Luca and Zia Miriam soon!

Visit with the Rosamonds!!

The Rosamonds stopped by our house for a couple of nights this weekend on the way to their new home in Conneticut.

Here's a picture of all the kids after Mass Saturday night. Yes, that's me hiding behind Maria holding Chiara. She does not like group photos.



Here they are on Friday night enjoying pizza.

Here are the babies :) :) So sweet!!

Here's Kelly with some of the little ones.

The kids enjoyed playing Wii for a little bit Saturday afternoon. Luke and Isaiah are NOT ready for the driver's licenses, if MarioKart is any test of driving skills :)

On Saturday night, we had a little party for the two September birthday kids, John Paul and Maria. Here's JP opening his birthday gift.

And, here are Cati and Isaiah enjoying some birthday cake! Cati's very curious as to whether Isaiah is capable of actually fitting that whole bite in his mouth :)

We had a GREAT time seeing them, and we hope to see them more often now that they're living a little closer!!

Parish Picnic

I'm a bit behind on blogging. Here are some photos and a couple of short video clips from our annual Parish picnic last Sunday. We had a lot of fun! There was lots of yummy food, and a great playground and games for the kids. Matteo asked if we could go again today :) Unfortunately, it's only once a year!

Grandma and Pipa visit

My parents (a.k.a. Grandma and Pipa) visited us last week!

I had fun playing with Windows Movie Maker yesterday and put together a few pictures of my parents with the kids!

Back to school tomorrow!! Next visitors...the Rosamonds this weekend!!!

Auguri!!

The kids got a new zia (aunt) today!! Dany's brother, Luca, married his beautiful girlfriend, Miriam, in Italy today!

Congratulations! We are so happy for you, and we are looking forward to your visit next week!!!


Here are pictures of them from our visit to Italy almost 2 years ago.

Happy 9th Birthday, Maria!

Yesterday was Maria's 9th birthday!


Here is Maria with her birthday balloons from Aunt Ginny. Notice the little hands at the bottom of the photo ready to grab them!



Here she is ready to tear into the presents!

She got a very nice scrapbook kit from family in Atlanta.

She got a very heavy box from Grandma and Pipa...what is in there that's so heavy??

Birthday phone call from the Rosamonds...we'll have to wait to find out.

Books!

A LOT of books! A whole set of 56 Nancy Drew books!

Then she opened a card from her great-grandmother.

Here are more gifts from Grandma and Pipa...a nightshirt...

...and some new earrings!

We got her a set of Boxcar Children books.

And some new hairclips.

Cati found a snowglobe in the house, wrapped it up and gave it to her :)

Then, she opened some new fall clothes from Aunt Ginny.

After enjoying some lasagna, it was time for cake!

Everyone has been waiting for this all day!

Look at the stressed-looking faces on the side wondering, "How many pictures do we have to take before we can eat?!?!"

After singing, we all finally got to enjoy the cupcakes! If you listen carefully, you can hear Dany's family on the phone joining in the singing.

On eve of her 9th birthday...

Here's a look back at Maria's past 8 birthdays!


Here's the original birthday. She lost her title of smallest baby birth weight to Elena this year. Maria was born 2 days before her due date on September 9, 2000 weighing 9lbs. 1oz.



1st birthday in Athens, GA with lots of friends and family.



A more subdued 2nd birthday with family in Cave Spring, GA.



Her 3rd birthday in Salt Lake City, UT.

Her 4th birthday in Salt Lake City with her 2 best friends.

Her 5th birthday, also in Salt Lake.

Her 6th birthday in our house in Greensburg, PA.

Her 7th birthday when she decided to help decorate the cake...

Her 8th birthday...

She's grown up so much and the time has passed so quickly! I'll post pictures of her 9th birthday tomorrow night or Thursday.

Here's a cute video of Maria displaying her vocal and dancing talents at age 3 that I ran across a while ago. Enjoy!

Homeschool Weeks 3 - 4: 8/26 - 9/4

You can tell when we're schooling because my blog posts become few and far between!

We have been schooling since Zia Anna left a week and a half ago. We've been working hard, getting as much done as possible before our current visitors, my parents, arrived a couple a days ago.

Here is Maria editing a writing assignment. Since she's been doing her writing assignments on the computer this year, I haven't had any picture of them to post.




Here is Maria's spelling test from this week. This lesson focused on prefixes.

In art this week, Maria learned about texture. She went outside and found a tree to draw while focusing on the texture of it.

We got back to her weekly Challenging Word Problems in math this week. These weren't particularly challenging as they were long! They were multi-, multi- step problems.

In science, Maria learned about nuclear energy before Anna visited. Here is a drawing and some notes about fission and fusion.

Last week, she learned about forces. We did an experiment like the one she drew at the top of the page. The other drawings are about things we discussed.

In history, she learned about the pilgrims who came to America in the 1600s.

Here's Maria's quiz on the states and capitals that she's learned so far. She gets 4 news ones each week.

Here is Maria's latin exercise from this week. Her lesson focused on numbers this week.

Here is Cati's work from this week.

Here is Cati's spelling test from this week. She has been learning about suffixes.

In art this week, Cati did a drawing scavenger hunt. She had a list of things to look for outside and drew them. Then she decided to paint them.

In science, Cati learned about the water cycle. One day she learned about the 3 states of water on earth. We melted ice on the stove and watched the steam condense on the lid of the pot. We also talked about why the outside of a glass of ice water gets "sweaty." The 2 pages below are her observations about these.

She also did a "Water cycle in a bowl" project. I forgot and threw it out before taking a picture, but I can describe it. She filled a large bowl with about 2" of salty water. Then she put an empty glass in the center of the bowl and covered the bowl with plastic wrap. She put a rock on the plastic wrap above the the glass so that the plastic wrap dipped down toward the glass. Then we let it sit in the sun for several hours. The water evaporated, condensed on the plastic wrap and "rained" down into the empty glass. When Cati tasted the water in the glass, it was no longer salty because the salt does not evaporate.



Cati has been doing very well with her cursive.

This is a narration on a literature passage from this week. She's now writing her own narrations!

In history this week, Cati learned about the Byzantine Empire. Here is a map that she colored and that she pasted some important Byzantine churches on.

Here are some paper dolls that she made of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora.

Here is mosaic that she made this week, since we talked about the mosaics that often decorate Byzantine churches.

I don't have any samples of Matteo's work from this week. He's been working on learned his double facts in math (2+2, 3+3, 4+4, 5+5, etc.). He also started reading silent-e words this week! He also works on his handwriting a little bit everyday.

He only works for about 45 minutes with me every morning, including some read-aloud time by me, so he has to fill the rest of his day. He looks at books and builds things with blocks. He really enjoys logic/puzzle games, like Rush Hour, and spends a lot time playing those.

Chiara enjoyed painting this week. I'm always happy when she's happy doing something independently. Note how she's contained in the highchair with a paint shirt :) Also note that she's been intentionally painting her left hand in addition to the paper :) :) Oh, well. It's all washable!

Water colors are a bit less dangerous, but she does look a bit guilty in this picture. I'm not sure why???

She also plays for a bit in the school room if I bring some toys in there. Before I took this picture, I had to remind her to build her tower on the floor, not on the baby.

Elena's usually content to play in the floor for a while after naps. She's starting to inch herself around. When I left her she was lying completely on this blanket longways.

We're taking this week off from school while my parents visit this week for Maria's birthday.